Chapter 42

We Scare Because We Care

The entire lounge fell silent as Desiree came into the room, or to be more precise, was dragged into the room by Astra. There was a delayed pop of bubble-gum from Jill and Lysander accidently tripped over the wires of his games console in an effort to join the rest of the group.

"You can do it. I promise you they won't think any different of you," Astra whispered in her ear and let go of her.

Desiree placed her arms on her dress nervously and looked from left to right before bowing as low as she possibly could.

"I am deeply sorry for worrying you all but there is something I must confess. Over the time we've spent together, you've been under the assumption that the Desiree you were talking to was the real one. I'm afraid I've led you astray in that regard. My name is not Desiree and I've lied to you about my past." Here she turned to Kohle specifically. "I'm sorry, Kohle. You put your trust in me and I let you down. So allow me to reintroduce myself. My name, or at least the one my adopted parents found on my tag, is-"

"Hold up." Kohle put his hand forward to stop her before resting it on his armchair. "Did you think we'd really accept that apology?"

"I- that is to say…"

"What exactly do you need to apologize for?" Desiree let out a small gasp of surprise as Kohle smiled at her. "The way I see it, we all have secrets that we'd rather keep to ourselves. Having personal space to ourselves is a basic necessity even when you're amongst family. Besides, even if I heard your real name I'd probably end up calling you Desiree anyway through force of habit."

"Yeah, Dessie's a pretty cool name anyway and I'd have to think of a different nickname," Salome said supportively.

"Because you haven't ruined enough names in the universe," Alfonso murmured sarcastically.

"Aw, there's always a place for you in my heart Fonnie," Salome teased with her finger only for Alfonso to swipe it away with his hand.

Rhea hugged her arms and stood up. "I think when we all entered Moira's Crescent we knew fully well that would mean leaving behind our past lives. I don't think any of us are the same now as we were back then. Because of that, I don't think we can ever say we have a definitive self. So if you're conflicted, that's only to be expected. None of us know who we really are, but we know what we are. We're family which means we stick together."

"Aw, that made me feel all warm and cuddly inside. Couldn't have said it better myself, Ray-Ray," Salome replied.

"Well I guess that settles it. Looks like you're officially Desiree for the foreseeable future. Looking forward to working with you, partner," Vyce said with a small smile.

"Everyone… thank you. I promise you I- Desiree Elegia Skye will do her best to keep you from worrying about her," Desiree said with a polite curtsy.

"Well now that we've settled that, I've decided to go ahead and hold a conference meeting for the end of the week. I think we should do this democratically so I've decided to hold a vote, one to decide whether we should pursue Sora or not," Kohle said.

The response to this was varied. Astra for example had put on a confident look at the mention of Sora's name while the girl next to her, Desiree, seemed troubled by this. She could already tell there would be no unanimous decision.

It was for this reason that Kohle continued on quickly. "But there's no need to think about that now. Instead, I have a mission of the utmost priority. As such I've designated it a level four."

Excitement soon replaced the conflicted looks around the room. Astra, not sure what Kohle had meant, whispered her confusion to Desiree.

"Each assignment is designated by a rank or level to indicate its importance. In this case, a level four is the second highest level a mission can achieve. It's not something we've gotten in a while," Desiree explained.

"Rhea has already elected to be one of the two people I'm sending on this mission and I'll need another. Astra, you seem to have taken to Rhea as your sparring partner, would you be willing to go?"

"If it's thrilling, heck yeah I'll go!" Astra answered, punching her fist into her palm. "To… where now?"

"Intelligence gathered by Alfonso has revealed that there is a world out there that acts as a crossroad, a link between that world and others," Kohle started.

"Sounds like a weird world. Wait, can it go to any world?" Salome asked, leaning out of her chair.

"The links in that world are represented by doors. From what I've seen there are thousands of them alike," Alfonso said.

"Wow, now I'm kinda jealous. Never thought I'd find doors so interesting," Salome said.

"Pretty solid evidence has revealed to us that KRONOS has infiltrated that world and is using it to send Heartless into other worlds. That probably includes worlds that the Heartless would not normally be able to get into, ones that are too far for the darkness to reach. It's certainly possible that our world is among those doors and if they were to find it, it would be a big problem for us. Your mission is to infiltrate the factory where these doors are and do whatever you can to eliminate whatever presence KRONOS has in that world. If we succeed, not just our world but many others will be saved and the Heartless will have very few places to hide."

"In other words, failure isn't an option. Understood!" Astra said. Her mind wasn't fully on the mission though but what Rhea had said.

They were family…

She had never thought of herself as part of the family. She was afraid to think of it because she feared it meant losing Luna. If there ever was a time when she had to decide whether to stand by Luna or Moira's Crescent she would have picked Luna, or so she thought at first. Now, she wasn't so sure. She had enjoyed her time here and they had treated her as if they'd known her their whole lives. It was the family she wished she had unlike her own dad who hadn't even cared.

"I'll do my best to support you on the field, Astra. But I'm afraid I'll need you to be constantly talking to me or guiding me since… well, you know…" Rhea said.

"Right, are you really sure it's okay to come? I mean, don't feel like you have to do it," Astra asked out of concern. A blind person navigating a place they were familiar with was one thing, but a completely new environment was another thing entirely.

"I need to spread my legs a little every now and then. Also I'm very curious about these doors and why such a world exists in the first place," Rhea explained her thoughts. "Will you be okay, Desiree?"

"Well let's just say I've decided to have Kohle treat me to some amazing French delicacies. Let's see, I haven't had Foie gras in a while, oh, and my mother always did make the best crème brûlée, I simply must have that too!"

"Wait as second, I didn't agree to that!" Kohle protested in a high pitched voice.

"Which is why I clearly said I've decided, so that you did not have to. Now come along Kohle, I simply must see your reaction once you've tasted our delicious delicacies, or I suppose I can just go back to my room sullen and-"

"No, no, no, that will be fine."

"And… you will be paying of course?"

"Huh? I figured that you would have the munny since you asked for it-"

"The room, then…"

"Of course I'll pay! Let me just get the munny from my room."

Astra stood completely startled by this strange conversation and by the time it was finished, looked to Salome. "Daaaaamn, this chick managed to put the boss on a leash? Are you sure she isn't the leader here?"

Salome laughed. "If Dessie were in charge I don't think any of us would be here right now."


Sora rested his chin on the console panel and stared at the puzzle box in front of him for what must have been the hundredth time, but now it was with more meaning. Before, he had nothing he could associate the puzzle box with except mystery. It was a mystery that he hadn't been able to solve since he had received it from the gods on Olympus roughly eight months ago. Eight months… had it really been that long? It had been nine months since he had first met Luna. In those nine months he had experienced so much that it seemed almost impossible for one person to experience that much in a year let alone a lifetime.

He had received one more surprise just before he, Luna and Stephanie had entered the Gummi Ship in the form of the woman who had helped them and the Parr family escape Nomanisan Island.

"You two are very interesting indeed. Now I see why KRONOS picked you," Mirage said, a strange way to introduce one's self but it served to bring out Sora and Luna's Keyblades at the mention of KRONOS which was probably what she wanted.

"Mirage… wasn't it? What are you doing here? Don't tell me you were snooping?" Sora asked.

"I couldn't help it. As I was watching you fight with that other Keyblade wielder, you just had me wrapped around your little finger the entire time, powerless to resist," Mirage said. "Much like my former boss, I'm drawn to power, or at least I was anyway."
"Was?"

Mirage's seductive smile relaxed into a gentler one. "I've come to learn that there are more powerful things in the world than power in its raw form. The virtues associated with having family and friends, for one."

"And power is what attracted you to KRONOS in the first place?" Luna asked.

"I've only heard what I have about them from Syndrome. I'm not among KRONOS' inner circle, but he was and he told me a lot of things that you might be interested to know," she replied.

"Why are you helping us? Not that we don't appreciate it if you do but… you were with our enemy so I guess what am I saying is I need proof I can trust you," Sora said.

"Then you'll be happy to hear what I have to say next. KRONOS is seeking a particular world, one they think contains the oldest known secret in the universe."

"Atlantis?" Luna asked suddenly, shocking both Mirage and Sora.

"So you know about it then?" Mirage confirmed for her.

Luna shook her head. "We've been hearing about it a lot quite recently. I just had a feeling it would come up sooner or later again."
"But the oldest known secret in the universe? What's that even supposed to mean?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure. My Master only told me that in order for the world to be revealed, a special kind of key is needed. It's not like your Keyblades— they won't be able to reveal the pathway to it. It's an ancient puzzle box of some kind."

That was when both Sora and Luna had realized that what they held in their hands was more than some mystical box that couldn't open. Its purpose probably wasn't that it was supposed to open up but rather open a way to a fabled lost world.

There was only one thing that didn't quite make sense to him though and it had been bugging him ever since he had gotten on the Gummi Ship. When Sora had asked Mirage to explain what KRONOS was in more detail, she told him that they took up the name after Maleficent had been defeated in the Alexander she had taken over. They had been planning a coup to overthrow her for some time but Sora and Luna had indirectly helped them speed up the process. So they were the same group, Sora got that part. But Abraxas had also been in that group and he had supposedly been the one who had given the box to the gods. If he, and by further extension KRONOS, already had the key then why had he just given it up to Sora instead. Had he not known the key's secret at the time or was it that he hadn't cared about KRONOS at all? That he had been working only for himself and sabotaging them from the inside? When thinking about Abraxas' actions throughout, that definitely seemed the most plausible scenario.

Sora leaned his head back against the chair's headrest and spun the chair around to see Kupopo floating into the room.

"Were you able to finish Goofy's shield?" Sora asked.

Kupopo bopped his head up and down. "It's new and improved! I'd say it could withstand almost any attack, kupo. Compared to the last shield, this one is made out of sixty five percent orichalcum amongst other hardened materials which are pretty resistant to most attacks. I have to say flying with you guys is pretty swag, kupo. Some of the junk we find in the sea between worlds contain some pretty rare materials. I don't think I'd be able to make this kind of shield without them."

"Then it's a good thing we brought you. Wait a second, did you just say swag?" Sora asked slightly disgruntled.

"I'm trying to sound all hip and cool with the kids these days, kupo. Am I doing a good job?" Kupopo asked.

Sora blinked repeatedly and formed multiple expressions on his face before finally settling on one. "If you're trying to appease an idiot maybe, yeah."

Just as he finished saying this, Luna and Stephanie ran into the room followed by Goofy and a tired Donald. Luna seated herself next to Sora and began spinning around with a grin.

"And what's got the eager beaver excited?" Sora asked.

"I had a great dream last night, but I'm not telling what it was about," Luna teased in a sing-song voice.

"So better than mine then. I don't even feel like sleeping half the time because I know that my dreams aren't going to be pleasant," Sora said with a smile. Despite his contrary words, he wasn't going to let his nightmares get him down or ruin the current mood. He told himself that he was going to try and be happy from now on and he wanted his actions to reflect his words.

"Sora, you need to stop thinking too much. Isn't that what you told me?" Luna reminded him.

"I try not to. Hopefully sticking around the positive energy that you guys have will help get my mind of certain things though," Sora said. He let out a yawn and looked at the window to see a world becoming increasingly bigger as they got closer to it.

"This world seems new, but according to the scanner it's… special," Donald said before giving an alarming quack that caused everyone to jump in shock.

"Holy mother of Kingdom Hearts, Donald, what was that for?" Sora asked, letting his voice crack halfway through.

"Er, you'll see once we get there, heh… heh heh," Donald replied with shifty eyes.

Their latest predicament had sent Sora howling with laughter like a hyena. Adversely, Luna let out a scream and was on the verge of tears. This all combined with Stephanie's shrill giggles and clapping made for quite a nuisance for those heading into the giant building right next to them. Indeed, a few heads were already starting to turn their way, but this only had the paradoxical effect of causing Sora and Stephanie to laugh more and Luna to scream more.

"Ah! I'm surrounded by furries! Forget that, I am one. AGAIN! Donald, what did you do?" Luna cried out in a panic.

"Hey, don't have a go at me! I told you this world was special. Plus, it's the magic that decides what we change into when we enter a world, I have no control over it," he defended himself promptly before getting a good look at himself, clearly not pleased with his own form.

They had all somehow turned into monsters. Luna had grown a lot of hair all over their body, not that she hadn't experienced something similar before with the Pride Lands but at least back then she had taken the form of an animal so it had been a pretty cool experience. This was something else entirely however. She had kept her human body but now resembled some kind of hairy beast with two triangular shaped ears on the top of her head as opposed to the side. She was not amused… at all.

Sora and Stephanie on the other hand had come out looking much better. Stephanie looked like a cute little lizard with purple scales covering her body while Sora was merely painted blue, had a unicorn horn poking out of his forehead and a tail waggling behind him. Adding in Donald being an octopus and Goofy looking like a werewolf and Luna felt stupid.

"W-well can we at least keep moving then? People are staring," Luna pointed out. She could at least count on her new fur to hide her blush if anything. "Though I have to say, this reminds me of a series I read once when I was in elementary school. It was about a group of friends who were able to transform into any animal by touching them. At night, I would spend time thinking about what kind of animal I would be if I could pick only one. In the end though it was my mom who picked for me. She gave me two choices to pick between, a realistic one and a mythical one. The realistic one was a cat."

"Hmm, I can see that. As in, right now, you literally look like a cat lady," Sora said before giggling along with Stephanie.

"And it gets even better! Now I really need a mirror. Or maybe I don't even want to know." Luna looked down at her hands and saw that they had indeed been turned into paws with. If she had whiskers under her nose then that would pretty much confirm it. Her eyes wandered downward as far as they could manage to make out some fine strands of long hair sticking out from the rest… okay, she was done.

"What was the mythical animal, sis?" Stephanie asked.

"A phoenix. I can't really see myself as that kind of mythical creature though so I think my mom was wrong on that one. I've always wanted to be some kind of bird though if I could pick any animal," Luna answered.

"Well I'm sure your mom must have seen something in you that would suggest otherwise. I think you've done a pretty good job coming out of this considering what's happened to you," Sora said.

"What kind of animal would you want to be, Sora? I'd want to be a butterfly," Stephanie said.

"A lion, no question about it. Though that's probably a boring answer since I've already been one," Sora said. "Hey Donald, what animal would you want to- oh wait!"

"Ha ha, very funny. And at least you didn't pick a shark," Donald said. "Anyway, let's hurry on and find out what this place is exactly. It looks like some kind of factory."
As Donald had pointed, up ahead was a giant looming factory that seemed to take up a considerable plot of land. The only thing on the building that hinted at what took place in the factory was the giant emblem above the entrance depicting a blue 'M' and an eye in the middle. It wasn't exactly much to go on so they continued on inside to the lobby, a clean yet busy room seeming to veer off into different directions.

They reached the front desk and waited for a… a purple one-eyed monster with long thick hair that looked like snakes, except they didn't look like snakes, they actually were snakes.

"This is just too weird for my poor brain to comprehend," said Goofy.

"Monster's incorporated, we scare because we care. How may I help you?" asked the female receptionist.

"Oh- um, this place is called Monster's incorporated?" Sora asked a little baffled. He had just witnessed a strange creature with spikes coming out of its back walking past.

"That is what I just said. Did you really come here without knowing where you were?" Miss Hiss (Sora had just picked the name after being unable to look away from the receptionist's living hair) asked.

"We're kind of new here. We were just looking around town and um- heard this was a popular tourist attraction," Luna made up on the fly.

"I see. To be honest, you guys aren't the first who've come here today and have acted like you have no idea where you were. I guess it must be one of those strange days. Well we usually do tours for visitors in the afternoon. It's about an hour and a half from now so you've arrived a bit early I'm afraid…"

"Oh, schmoopsie-poo, it's no problem at all. You weren't planning to send them away, were you?"

The introduction of two more strange creatures made Sora cough loudly in order to cover what would be giggles struggling to let rampant. The one who had spoken was a small and round green alien also with one eye and two small gray horns on its head. Next to him was perhaps his exact opposite. Despite its big and muscular countenance, his gentle smile seemed to provide warmness and sincerity. He was blue and furry with purple spots on all but the front of his body. It was strange to Sora that despite looking anything but human, these creatures seemed to have the most human of traits about them, not from their appearances but personalities. He could very easily guess that the green one was the suave and wise cracking one while the blue one was quite laidback and calmer.

"Of course not, googley bear. But I can't exactly take them on a tour to see the factory either during scaring hours," Miss Hiss replied in much the same loving tone this googley bear had shown her. Sora couldn't really say he looked like a bear but then again, it was possible that bears looked like this in this world so he wouldn't say anything about it just yet.

"Don't worry, we'll take full responsibility for them, won't we, Sully?" Googley Bear nudged his blue friend in the waist.

"Uh, don't you think we have enough on our hands already, Mike? You know, what with the ixnay on the id kay?" Sully mumbled.

"Sully, please, I have no idea what you just said," Googley Bear, or Mike said before greeting the newcomers. He quickly explained that he would be taking care of them despite his supposed girlfriend not having agreed to it yet. Before they could leave however, Luna placed her hands on the table.

"Sorry, do you have a pamphlet for this place?" Luna asked. She figured the first thing to do in any new world was to gather as much information as they could about it. They needed to be prepared for any and all potential problems, unlike the last world they'd been to.

Miss Hiss moved her squid-like hands under the desk before presenting her with a very detailed pamphlet with information on both sides. It was in this pamphlet that she learned a little bit more about what they did at this factory, and what it was shocked her to core. The pamphlet started off rather simply by stating that the factor was the major energy provider to the nearly 15,000 homes and facilities in the city of Monstropolis. In other words, if something bad happened to the factory then a lot of people—or rather monsters— would lose their supply of energy. It seemed weird to Luna that they would rely on one source of energy for the entire city. In her own world, people sometimes did things called strikes where they would stop coming to work if they didn't agree with how their profession was being run and it was well within their rights to do so. She didn't know if that applied here but she kept it in mind and continued on reading.

When she reached the rather unconventional method of extracting the energy to supply to the city, her eyes froze on two words. It didn't even make sense to her. The concept seemed impossible and yet here she was reading it like it seemed perfectly normal.

"Excuse me. You supply energy to the city through… uhm, the screams of children?" she asked with some difficulty.

"Not just any children. Human children!" Mike exclaimed proudly as if this revelation would somehow have made the idea sound any less insane. "Don't worry, Sully's been the top scarer here ever since we first came here. You're looking at employee of the month material right here, and of course personal trainer to employee of the month. Let's see… yep, we have a bit longer till lunch so why don't we head to the scare floor and have Sully give you a demonstration?"

"Mike, I really don't think we have time for this. We need to find-"

"I'll handle it," Mike said through gritted teeth to his friend before gesturing for the group to follow them. They were all entirely hesitant at first for the same reason. Using children's scares to supply energy seemed incredibly stupid and even if, in some strange way that they couldn't imagine, it made sense then it still sounded completely unethical. But it was that danger that naturally invited curiosity anyway and so they followed without a further word.

They soon learned the full name of the creatures who had taken them under their care. The supposedly green bear who looked nothing like one had introduced himself as Mike Wazowski (or as Stephanie had taken to calling him after he had said it, "Just call me Mike") while his friend, James P. Sullivan, simply referred to himself as Sully for short.

They soon encountered a lengthy security check which involved being sprayed with some weird chemical by the security team. Even Mike and Sully had to be doused after failing to argue that they were on a busy schedule.

"What was that about? They were treating us like we were criminals or something," Sora said after deeming what was a safe distance to bring up the topic.

"Uh, no idea, right, Sully?" Mike awkwardly eyed the bigger creature, not seeming to realize that he just made it look all the more suspicious. Of course Sully was just as eager to play along, confirming that they were indeed hiding something.

"Are you sure? They said they were from the… Child Detection Agency? Who're they?"

"You don't need what the CDA is? What kind of hole have you been living in? No offence but I don't think I've ever come across a monster who hasn't heard of them," Mike said.

"So you do know something?" Luna skilfully eluded the question and turned it back on them.

Mike and Sully flashed each other a quick look, possibly hoping that their guests wouldn't have noticed. Before they could say anything, a hand was placed against Sully's back which sent him jumping in fright.

"Oh, got you good there, huh? I guess I've still got some scare in me," said the creature with a chuckle. He was a gray and blue crab-like figure with six legs and three smaller eyes above his two main ones. Sora was about to curiously peek around him more to get a better observation but Luna held him back from possibly doing he would regret.

"Mr. Waternoose, sir. Yeah, yeah you got me pretty good there, ha ha," Sully answered nervously.

"Why so stiff? You need to relax those muscles if you want to really let that side of yours out. To tell you the truth though, I can sympathize with you there. Oh, it's been a mess today what with security being ramped up due to that intruder," said Waternoose.

"Intruder, sir?" Luna enquired curiously. Waternoose paused on her for a moment and then the rest of them before smiling.

"The CDA believe that a human may be in the facility which is why you were searched before you could come through. It's a very dangerous affair having a human, especially a child, in the facility. They're toxic and can contaminate the factory. If the CDA were indeed to discover a child here, then the factory would have no choice but to close down. The hundreds of people here would lose their jobs and the city would lose its source of energy. It's why I can't let the existence of a child be made public less it causes a panic," he explained.

"But you thought you could tell us?" Sora asked.

"Well when it comes to visitors, I don't really expect them to gab about it in public. As for my fellow employees, if there's anyone I trust more here, it's Mr. Sullivan here. He's a fine example of a dedicated worker who puts his all into his work."

"That's rather kind of you, sir. I'll be sure to make you proud," Sully said with a sad smile.

"Well, I should get back to doing some paperwork. Lots to do and so little time. Do enjoy yourselves here at Monster's incorporated. You're under the care of the best," Waternoose told them, albeit tiredly. He gave Sully one final pat on the back before disappearing off down the hallway.

"Children are… toxic?" Stephanie asked out loud.


The pixar love is real right now. Anyway, time for one of my favorite pixar movies and a perfect fit for Kingdom Hearts and this story in particular I've decided. As always, do provide feedback where necessary and have fun reading!